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ESPN Fantasy Football: Bigger and Better Than Ever for 2017

Industry’s No. 1 fantasy football game begins 22nd season with new features and content;

All on app, web, television, audio and more;

ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon presented by DraftKings returns August 14-15;

The Fantasy Show to premiere on ESPN August 16.

ESPN Fantasy Football, the No. 1 most popular fantasy football game, begins its 22nd season with new content and game play features on the ESPN Fantasy App and ESPN.com, along with the most comprehensive collection of expert analysis, news, tools and statistical information in the fantasy sports industry across app, web, television and audio.

The ESPN Fantasy App, the No. 1 fantasy app on iOS and Android devices, will include enhancements that make playing ESPN Fantasy Football faster, more efficient and dependable for the 2017 season. Throughout the app, improvements to navigation make it easier to search for players, add free agents and share team moves and draft picks. The app will continue to provide award-winning fantasy analysis and access to video right from the app’s home screen, as well as game logos, player headshots, sticker packs, and animations; draft and live scoring features; and personalized notifications tailored to fans’ rosters.

The ESPN Fantasy App makes it easy for fans to sign up, create or join a league, customize their league and draft, make trades, add players, follow their matchups with real-time scoring, see expert analysis and video, and view and post messages to other league members. The app also allows fans to play the entire suite of ESPN Fantasy games, including Fantasy Baseball, Basketball, Hockey, and Streak, ESPN’s refreshed sports prediction game, all in the same application. All ESPN Fantasy games are free to play.

ESPN Fantasy Football onESPN.com provides multiple tools for the draft including a Fantasy Football Draft Kit, which analyzes and projects more than 500 players. Cheat Sheet Central, rankings and strategy content are also included in the kit, as well as the 2017 editions of Matthew Berry’s Draft Day Manifesto and his Love/Hate column, the first of which will be released prior to the ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon presented by DraftKings. Also, the ESPN Mock Draft Lobbyruns nearly unlimited live practice drafting sessions for all ESPN fantasy football owners.

Kicking off preseason preparations for fantasy players as part of the ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon, Eric Karabell, Mike Clay and Daniel Dopp will lead a special edition of Mock Draft Mondays from the set of the Marathon on Monday, Aug. 14 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m. ET. Following the Marathon, ESPN.com will continue hosting Mock Draft Mondays every Monday in August from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET, giving fans the unique opportunity to ask questions and practice draft strategies against ESPN fantasy football analysts including Karabell, Field Yates, Clay, Tristan H. Cockcroft, KC Joyner and Matt Bowen, along with injury analyst Stephania Bell and various NFL Nation reporters, among others. Fans are also able to interact with ESPN experts and analysts via social media.

New scoring features for ESPN Fantasy Football this season include a change to the Defense/Special Teams scoring structure, which means points not surrendered by a defense or special teams will no longer count against that team’s D/ST. For example, if a quarterback throws a “pick 6”, the resulting score will not count against his team’s D/ST. In addition, for individual defensive player leagues, ESPN has added the Edge Rusher position, in order to bring fantasy play in line with how modern NFL defenses actually impact games on the field.

Also, for newly created leagues this season, points-per-reception (PPR) scoring – a higher-scoring, more action-packed way to play fantasy football that rewards receivers for each catch – is now the default format, while traditional standard scoring remains an option for all leagues. New leagues will also default to decimal scoring, making matchups more accurate and competitive by recording scores in fractions of a point. These options and many others are available to all leagues and are fully customizable. Fans re-activating leagues from last year will retain the same scoring settings for this season, with the option to make changes if they choose.

Once the season is underway, fans can follow ESPN FantasyCastfor free, real-time scoring of their weekly fantasy matchups, updated as the plays happen in real life. Embedded player profiles allow fans to get the latest statistics, news and injury information for players they own or are following, and easily add, drop or trade players to build a championship team.

Each league also features message boards, chats, polls and smack boards, and players can interact with ESPN Fantasy throughout the season on social platforms.

ESPN Fantasy Football Insight and Analysis
Every year, ESPN provides fantasy football players with an unmatched depth and breadth of news, analysis and insights on fantasy football from the No. 1 roster of writers, analysts and media personalities in the industry.

Mike Clay will continue to drive ESPN’s season-long and weekly projections with his popular Fantasy 32 column every Tuesday, highlighting a fantasy fact or trend from each of the NFL’s 32 teams, and his industry-leading wide receiver/cornerback matchup analysis for ESPN Insider every Thursday.

NFL Insider Matt Bowen, who spent seven years in the NFL as a safety, will continue to bring to ESPN fantasy his experience and X’s and O’s acumen, provide valuable insight into how NFL teams prepare for their games and apply it to trending fantasy topics.

ESPN.com Fantasy Insider Eric Karabell will blog daily and post his popular Flex Rankings every Thursday.

Tristan Cockcroft, an FSWA Hall of Famer, will continue to compile ESPN’s exclusive Consistency Ratings and write his popular Fantasy Winners and Losers column, highlighting the most significant takeaways and performances from each game on Sunday.

Fantasy injury analyst and ESPN.com senior writer Stephania Bell will continue to provide her injury analysis expertise on a variety of platforms, including the Fantasy Focus Football podcast, Fantasy Football Now on ESPN2, and various columns and features on ESPN.com and the ESPN App.

KC Joyner, the football scientist, blends proprietary metrics with video analysis to bring insights into the game within the game. He’ll focus on the battles at the offensive and defensive line to find favorable matchups to exploit in fantasy.

Berry, Yates, Clay, Karabell, and Cockcroft all will contribute to ESPN’s Tuesday Rankings, one of the most popular pieces of content on ESPN.com each week, and will now offer both PPR and non-PPR rankings. Fans will also find insight from ESPN.com’s football experts and analysts.
Exclusive content available to ESPN Insiders includes Insider Recommends, Custom Value Generator and insight from Berry, Karabell, Yates, Bell, Clay, Cockcroft and Joyner, as well as special contributions from ESPN’s NFL Nation staff writers. Also, the Insider Cheat Sheet aggregates the best Insider fantasy advice in one convenient column every Friday.ESPN Fantasy Football on TV
ESPN will provide fantasy players with more insights, information and analysis on its television networks for the 2017 season, including:

ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon II: The ESPN Fantasy Football Marathon presented by DraftKingswill return with another 28 straight hours of fantasy football news and analysis, and a new round of fun and creative features. Starting Monday, Aug. 14 at 7 p.m. ET through Tuesday, Aug. 15 at 11 p.m. ET, the marathon will include Fantasy Football specials in primetime, segments on multiple editions of SportsCenter, and Fantasy Football-themed editions of popular ESPN shows, including First Take, Mike & Mike, OTL, SportsNationand NFL Live. All programs during the marathon will be streamed live on the ESPN App and ESPN Fantasy App across mobile and OTT devices.

The Fantasy Show with Matthew Berry: Berry and his unconventional cast of characters aim to make you a smarter fantasy football player and help you win your league while embracing the fun spirit of fantasy sports. The Fantasy Show provides fans with a mix of news and analysis, as well as special guests and segments, all presented with Berry’s smart, irreverent style. The show began releasing daily digital content on August 1, and will premiere on ESPN on Aug. 16 at 3 p.m. ET, before running in its regular timeslot on weekdays at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.

Fantasy Football Now: SportsCenter anchor Lisa Kerney joins Berry, Hasselbeck, Yates and Bell as the new host of the award-winning Sunday morning program, which expands to three hours this fall. FFN will prepare fans for Sunday’s fantasy action with tips, lineup suggestions and live reports from the stadiums. The show returns Aug. 15 during the Fantasy Football Marathon and begins its regular-season weekly airings Sept. 10 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. ET on ESPN2.

* All ESPN networks are available to stream live on the ESPN app. Schedule subject to change.ESPN Fantasy Football on Audio
ESPN Audio will once again bring fans original programming and content dedicated to fantasy football.

ESPN Fantasy Focus Football Podcast, the most popular fantasy sports podcast, returned to its daily schedule Monday, July 31. Hosted by Berry and Yates, with injury expert Bell, Fantasy Focus Football provides player previews, game overviews and strategies, as well as featured guests and interviews.

ESPN Radio– Throughout the season, ESPN Radio will devote attention to fantasy football in popular programs including Fantasy Focus, hosted by Dave Rothenberg, Karabell and former NFL player Bobby Carpenter, and Operation Football, hosted by Yates.

12th Annual Fantasy Draft Convention and Championship – ESPN 1000, Chicago’s No. 1 sports talk station, will host its 12th Convention and Championship at Joe’s Live Rosemont in Chicago on Saturday, Aug. 19, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CT. Hosted by David Kaplan, the event will include special guests Yates and Bell, along with ESPN Chicago 1000 voices Barstool Big Cat from Pardon My Take!, Steve “Mongo” McMichael, Tom Waddle, Marc Silverman, Carmen DeFalco, John Jurkovic, Jonathan Hood and more. An exclusive Waddle & Silvy podcast will feature Barstool Big Cat, and a post-party event at MB Financial Park will include live music from the Chicago Six, featuring McMichael, Dan Hampton and Otis Wilson from the 1985 Chicago Bears. Registered attendees will be entered in an online draft in which one fan will be crowned champion and receive $7,500 in cash and prizes.

3rd Annual ESPN New York Fantasy Football Convention – On Sunday, Aug. 27, 98.7 ESPN New York will host its 3rd Annual Fantasy Football Convention at Resorts World Casino in Queens, NY, from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. ET. ESPN NFL and Fantasy Football analysts and ESPN 98.7FM hosts at the event will include Berry, Bell, Clay, former New York Giant and Super Bowl champion Chris Canty, Rick DiPietro, Dave Rothenberg, Anita Marks and Alan Hahn. The convention will include an in-depth panel discussion, during which the hosts will provide fantasy football advice for the upcoming season, and a special opportunity for leagues to draft on-site at Resorts World. Fans can visit 987fantasy.com for more information on the event.

ESPN The MagazineESPN The Magazine‘s “Fighting Issue” will feature an eight-page fantasy football preview on newsstands Friday, Aug. 11. It will include a special supplemental preview of Berry’s Annual Love/Hate column, his inside look at players primed for big years and players he wouldn’t recommend to his worst fantasy football enemy. Sneak peek: “Don’t draft Matt Stafford or Ben Roethlisberger before you read this.”